As the girls’ ultimate team prepares for State, head coach Seija Stratton said she wants graduating senior players to feel proud of their last season at Park.

“(I’m) just hoping that the seniors feel that this is the capstone of their season and that they are able to leave and graduate from St. Louis Park feeling proud of their accomplishments, Stratton said.

Gendler said because they are in division two, she expects the team to perform well.

“I have pretty high expectations for the team since we’re in D2. We’re seeded number two in D2, so I really think if we play hard and we play well we could win D2 which would be amazing,” Gendler said.

According to Stratton, the team’s State schedule currently includes playing four games June 2 and either two or three games June 3. However, Stratton said the risk of storms during the tournament could affect the team’s schedule.

“We’ll have to see what happens with the weather,” Stratton said. “Unfortunately the forecast is looking like thunderstorms all day Saturday, so there may be some creative shuffling of all the pools and bracket schedule.”

Senior captain Esther Gendler said the team had the opportunity to prepare in stormy conditions in a game May 29.

“It’s supposed to rain on Saturday so we got some preparation for that on Tuesday’s game. Hopefully, it goes well,” Gendler said.

According to Stratton, the team’s preparation for State includes focus on strategy.

“We’ve been focusing on our offensive and defensive strategies at practice this week,” Stratton said. “We had a game on Tuesday against a pretty tough team, St. Paul Central, and the girls played really hard and really well. We ran a very effective, solid defense.”

Gendler said Park has previously played in division one, so this tournament will be a different experience.

“We’ve played D1 the past two years, and basically D1 is teams which have won more season games and are really good. D2 is teams that are maybe newer and didn’t get a really good record for their seasonal games,” Gendler said.